“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity” has always been one of my favorite quotes. Lately it made me meditate on the topic of attention in the context of jewelry. I found out that the author of these words, the French philosopher, mystic, and activist Simone Weil (1909–1943), saw attention as a way to deal with human suffering. This photo essay is framed as a letter to Simone Weil, whose words I love and hopelessly misinterpreted.
![Dear Simone, thank you for giving us this: "Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." Your philosophical writings on suffering have been boiled down to a one liner on a website with inspirational quotes. It’s just as well you didn’t live to see that. But for me, even just that one misinterpreted sentence is immensely relevant. It’s not that easy, though. Jewelry people do funny things with attention. I’ll show you what I mean. || Natalia Calamari, Portrait of Simone Weil, 2020, colored pencil drawing, photo: artist](https://artjewelryforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/120SIMONE_WEIL_HIGH220Natalia20Calamari_1024x768px.jpg "Dear Simone, thank you for giving us this: "Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." Your philosophical writings on suffering have been boiled down to a one liner on a website with inspirational quotes. It’s just as well you didn’t live to see that. But for me, even just that one misinterpreted sentence is immensely relevant. It’s not that easy, though. Jewelry people do funny things with attention. I’ll show you what I mean. || Natalia Calamari, Portrait of Simone Weil, 2020, colored pencil drawing, photo: artist")
![Is that why we wear big jewelry, to get some attention in a tight window of time? Or are there other reasons? This necklace of a silver ship was on show in Amsterdam in 1994. "It must be frustrating for the lady wearing this ship," a newspaper reporter assumed, "since it distracts the attention from more interesting body parts." Where was his mind, anyway? (This remark by Volkskrant newspaper reporter Jaap Huisman was mentioned in "A Moveable Feast: Helen Williams Drutt Collection 1964–1993," Hedendaagse Sieraden.) || Richard Mawdsley, \The Pequod" Necklace, 1971, sterling silver, green onyx, carnelian, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Helen Williams Drutt Collection, museum purchase funded by the estate of Jack T. McCann, 2002.3951, photo: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston](https://artjewelryforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/420Pequod20Pendant20Houston_1024x768px.jpg "Is that why we wear big jewelry, to get some attention in a tight window of time? Or are there other reasons? This necklace of a silver ship was on show in Amsterdam in 1994. "It must be frustrating for the lady wearing this ship," a newspaper reporter assumed, "since it distracts the attention from more interesting body parts." Where was his mind, anyway? (This remark by Volkskrant newspaper reporter Jaap Huisman was mentioned in "A Moveable Feast: Helen Williams Drutt Collection 1964–1993," Hedendaagse Sieraden.) || Richard Mawdsley, \The Pequod" Necklace, 1971, sterling silver, green onyx, carnelian, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Helen Williams Drutt Collection, museum purchase funded by the estate of Jack T. McCann, 2002.3951, photo: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston")
![Once, I heard artist Noon Passama explain that her "work does not attract attention right away, but that it completes the outfit of the wearer." Commercial suicide in an economy that battles for people’s scarce attention? What do you think? || Noon Passama, Chain Anklet, 2018, cast sterling silver, white rhodium plating, photo: artist](https://artjewelryforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/820Noon20Passama20anklets20IMG_5277202_1024x768px.jpg "Once, I heard artist Noon Passama explain that her "work does not attract attention right away, but that it completes the outfit of the wearer." Commercial suicide in an economy that battles for people’s scarce attention? What do you think? || Noon Passama, Chain Anklet, 2018, cast sterling silver, white rhodium plating, photo: artist")
![I like to answer that with cultural anthropologist Edward Hall’s description of the four zones of "interpersonal distance" between people. How would jewelry tie in there? In Hall’s public and social space, the distance is too big for modest jewelry to attract attention. In the personal space, it has a chance. For sure, modest jewelry will unfold itself in the intimate zone, the zone where you could whisper and still be heard. Just as perfume is only meant for yourself or someone who is within intimate distance, modest jewelry is for the one who opens up to you. It won’t be noticed directly, but once detected, it can’t be forgotten. That’s the reward for being present. || Photo: Unsplash/Priscilla du Preez](https://artjewelryforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/920perfume20priscilla-du-preez-_4nz8rtOxO8-unsplash28129_1024x768px.jpg "I like to answer that with cultural anthropologist Edward Hall’s description of the four zones of "interpersonal distance" between people. How would jewelry tie in there? In Hall’s public and social space, the distance is too big for modest jewelry to attract attention. In the personal space, it has a chance. For sure, modest jewelry will unfold itself in the intimate zone, the zone where you could whisper and still be heard. Just as perfume is only meant for yourself or someone who is within intimate distance, modest jewelry is for the one who opens up to you. It won’t be noticed directly, but once detected, it can’t be forgotten. That’s the reward for being present. || Photo: Unsplash/Priscilla du Preez")
![I told her about this later. I got all lyrical about simultaneously noticing and not noticing, about unintentionality. But she brought something else up: "Why is it that people who are interested in contemporary jewelry are hardly ever interested in someone else’s choice?" Busted. My friend did not wait for me to cover up for my indifference with a hasty question. She continued to say she liked this particular brooch because the artist created the substance ‘Diomant’ herself. This prompted me to tell her about the peculiar casting process of my ring that… Wait, was this conversation about me again? || Saskia van Es wearing a bronze ring by Lorenzo Pepe, photo: Jacq Roos (detail)](https://artjewelryforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/1120Saskia20tea20lorenzo20pepe_1024x768px.jpg "I told her about this later. I got all lyrical about simultaneously noticing and not noticing, about unintentionality. But she brought something else up: "Why is it that people who are interested in contemporary jewelry are hardly ever interested in someone else’s choice?" Busted. My friend did not wait for me to cover up for my indifference with a hasty question. She continued to say she liked this particular brooch because the artist created the substance ‘Diomant’ herself. This prompted me to tell her about the peculiar casting process of my ring that… Wait, was this conversation about me again? || Saskia van Es wearing a bronze ring by Lorenzo Pepe, photo: Jacq Roos (detail)")
![It seems that the attention starts to flow as soon as jewelry goes places, between the wearer, the observer, and … the jewelry itself? When you think of the world as animated, as some artists do, these earrings come to seem alert, too. Their eyes, next to your ears and your face mask, are wide open. Eyeing who? Free them from the glass dome, put them on, and your bonus, according to the artist, will be "neck kisses all day long." || Viola Renate, Delirious Pearl Chloé, 2020, earrings, wool, findings, doll eyes, photo: Aad Hoogendoorn/Courtesy Garage Rotterdam](https://artjewelryforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/1220Viola20Renate20Aad20Hoogendoorn_00014_1024x768px.jpg "It seems that the attention starts to flow as soon as jewelry goes places, between the wearer, the observer, and … the jewelry itself? When you think of the world as animated, as some artists do, these earrings come to seem alert, too. Their eyes, next to your ears and your face mask, are wide open. Eyeing who? Free them from the glass dome, put them on, and your bonus, according to the artist, will be "neck kisses all day long." || Viola Renate, Delirious Pearl Chloé, 2020, earrings, wool, findings, doll eyes, photo: Aad Hoogendoorn/Courtesy Garage Rotterdam")
![You can wear a piece of contemporary art jewelry on the bus, you can wear it to work, to the grocery store, and you are delivering the experience of seeing art. You don’t have to be able to buy a piece of art jewelry to experience art jewelry. We democratize art consumption." These words must appeal to an activist like you, Simone. So I wonder, did you ever spend time dreaming away on the tram? Quote from Jillian Moore, excerpted from the Jewelry Edition V5 interview series with Ashley Callahan and Luiza DeCamargo, 2020, https://www.jewelryedition.com || Jillian Moore, Druplus, 2010, brooch, photo: Saskia van Es](https://artjewelryforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/1320Jillian20Moore20IMG_9237_1024x768px.jpg "You can wear a piece of contemporary art jewelry on the bus, you can wear it to work, to the grocery store, and you are delivering the experience of seeing art. You don’t have to be able to buy a piece of art jewelry to experience art jewelry. We democratize art consumption." These words must appeal to an activist like you, Simone. So I wonder, did you ever spend time dreaming away on the tram? Quote from Jillian Moore, excerpted from the Jewelry Edition V5 interview series with Ashley Callahan and Luiza DeCamargo, 2020, https://www.jewelryedition.com || Jillian Moore, Druplus, 2010, brooch, photo: Saskia van Es")
![You’re riding the train and your gaze falls unconsciously on the earrings worn by someone sitting one seat ahead of you. It reminds you of something, and after three stops you know what. When worn in the public realm, a piece of contemporary jewelry has time on its side. Instead of screaming, it can lower its voice and tell a story. Does too much effort ruin the probability of this happening? For you, Simone, a profound attentive attitude did not seek the suffering person, nature, or a beautiful mathematical dilemma at hand. Instead, "attention consists of suspending our thought, leaving it detached, empty and ready to be penetrated by the object. || Diederick van Hovell, The Camel Humps, Force and Determination, Ring for Alice, 2019, recycled thermoformed acrylic, photo: artist](https://artjewelryforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/1420camel20diederickvanhovell_1024x768px.jpg "You’re riding the train and your gaze falls unconsciously on the earrings worn by someone sitting one seat ahead of you. It reminds you of something, and after three stops you know what. When worn in the public realm, a piece of contemporary jewelry has time on its side. Instead of screaming, it can lower its voice and tell a story. Does too much effort ruin the probability of this happening? For you, Simone, a profound attentive attitude did not seek the suffering person, nature, or a beautiful mathematical dilemma at hand. Instead, "attention consists of suspending our thought, leaving it detached, empty and ready to be penetrated by the object. || Diederick van Hovell, The Camel Humps, Force and Determination, Ring for Alice, 2019, recycled thermoformed acrylic, photo: artist")
